Saturday, November 28, 2009

David Bromstad, former Disney World cast member, won fame by winning the first season of HGTV’s Design Star. Last week, the Miami-Beach based designer was back in the parks, working on Behind the Magic — Disney Holidays, an HGTV special that debuts Nov. 29. Bromstad, who now hosts Color Splash on HGTV (taping resumes in January, he says), talked about the episode.

Last night we saw Main Street getting all decorated. We saw the Castle. We saw people practicing. Just everything and all happening simulatenously. Really quite amazing.
Did they rip down Halloween in front of you?

They ripped out Halloween before we even got there, and we got here pretty early. They were on top of things.

Is it giving you a flashback to your time as a cast member?

Absolutely, I worked with visual merchandisers for several years. I knew a lot of the stuff that happened, but it’s always so crazy and amazing to see it again and again and again. You never get sick of it.

You host “Color Splash” and Disney IS a color splash. What style would you call that?

You can go into the Magic Kingdom and see a very traditional Christmas then go over to Tomorrowland and see something really wacky and far out and wild. Then go to Animal Kingdom and see something completely opposite. That’s the great thing about Disney, there are so many places that you can go and be inspired by different things.

Did you learn something you did not know in the last two days?

I didn’t know it only took three days to do [decorate] the entire Magic Kingdom. That was the biggest thing. I knew it happened quickly — just not that quickly.
What else have you seen?

I actually got to go into the Disney Christmas warehouse, where cameras have never really been before. I got to see all the trees, the fake trees all dismantled and being ready to be shipped out. All the floor trees, wreaths and garland. It’s huge — 5,000 square feet of Christmas crazy. Awesome.
Did your Disney experience influence your personal style?

Disney always influences me. Disney is what I look to for quality. Because I worked here as an artist and because I learned how to be an artist because of Disney, they took the quality of my art and made it superior. To this day, when I do artwork or when I do a room, I always compare to if it would match up with Disney.